DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS & STATISTICS

Basic Business Statistics 1A –Tutorial, 2017

SECTION 1: BASIC MATHEMATICS

1. Evaluate on your calculator

a. (2.3+4.6+9.2+17.3)/4
b. 280.5
c. 0.2 −3
d. e1.6
e. e −1.6
f. 4!, 1!, 6!, (-3)!, 8!

2. For the data x: 2, 3, 5, 1, 4, 3, 2, 4 find

n
a.  xi
i 1

b. x
n
c. ( xi ) 2
i 1
n
d.  xi2
i 1
n
e.  ( xi  x )
i 1
n
f .  ( xi  x) 2
i 1
n

n
( xi ) 2
g.  xi2  i 1

i 1 n

3. Repeat question 2 for the data

x: 2, 3, 4, 6, 1, 3, 7, 2, 2, 3

SECTION 2 : DEFINITIONS, TYPES OF DATA, SCALES OF MEASUREMENTS

1 Define the following:

a. Statistic
b. Parameter
c. Variable
d. Sample
e. Population
f. Census
g. Experiment

2. Name and discuss the following :

a. Levels or scales of data measurement.

b. Types of variables
c. Data types
d. Sources of data
e. Methods of data collection

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3 State with reasons whether the following data are continuous or discrete.
a. The temperature of the sea in summer.
b. The number of children in schools
c. The lifetime of a light bulb.

4. State whether each of the following is quantitative or qualitative data. If it is quantitative, state whether it is discrete or
continuous.
a. Your favourite chocolate
b. The number of times you visited the cinema in the last 6 months.
c. Your HIV status.
d. The weight of luggage on a flight.
e. The sex of your child.

5 Classify each of the following as nominal, ordinal, interval or ratio level data.
a. The time required to produce each tyre on an assembly line.
b. The number of pints of milk a family drinks in a month.
c. The ranking of four machines in your plant after they have been designated as excellent, good, satisfactory and
poor.
d. The telephone area code of clients in Namibia.
e. The age of each student in your BBS class.
f. The dollar sales at your local pizza place each month.
g. The Polytechnic of Namibia student identity number.
h. The response time of City Police to local emergencies.

6 The following questions were asked in a quality satisfaction survey for hospital patients. For each question name the
level of measurement in which the response will fall.
a. How long ago were you released from hospital?
b. Which type of unit were you in for most of your stay?
o Coronary care
o Intensive care
o Maternity care
o Paediatric /children’s unit.
o Surgical unit.

c. In choosing a hospital, how important was the hospitals location?

Very Somewhat Not Very Not at All

Important Important Important Important.

d. How critical was your condition when you were first admitted to the hospital?
Critical Serious Moderate Minor

e. Rate the skill of your doctor.

Excellent Very Good Good Fair Poor

f. On the scale from one to seven below, rate the nursing care.
Poor 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Excellent

SECTION 3: PRESENTATION OF STATISTICAL DATA

1. The Namibian Marketing Journal summarized the buying behaviour of a thousand families. The result was to categorize
the families into 5 buying categories A, B, C, D, and E respectively. The following table shows data that was collected
from 50 families.
A C E B D C D B D C
D B D E C A D C D E
D C A B D C B E C D
B C D C D C E A D C
C B D D B D C B B A
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 a. Construct the frequency distribution for the data in the table.
b. Calculate the relative frequency and percent distributions for the dataset.
c. Construct the bar charts for (i) the frequency distribution and (ii) the relative frequency distribution for the
dataset.
d. Construct a pie chart for the relative frequency distribution for the dataset.
e. Comment on the distribution you observe.

2 Suppose we collect information on the ages (in years) of 50 students selected from NUST. The data values, in the order
they are collected, are recorded in the table below
21 19 24 25 29 34 26 27 37 33
18 20 19 22 19 19 25 22 25 23
25 19 31 19 23 18 23 19 23 26
22 28 21 20 22 22 21 20 19 21
25 23 18 37 27 23 21 25 21 24

2.1. Suppose we take the same 50 students and ask them which faculty they are registered under. Their responses are
recorded in the table below. In this table H, IT, ENG and SHAS are the abbreviations for Humanities, Information
Technology, Engineering, and Health and Applied Sciences respectively.

ENG H IT SHAS ENG ENG SHAS ENG ENG ENG

H H ENG H H H SHAS IT SHAS ENG
ENG H SHAS IT IT H ENG H SHAS SHAS
IT SHAS ENG IT IT ENG ENG IT H IT
SHAS SHAS H SHAS ENG IT H ENG IT IT

a. Prepare a frequency distribution table.

b. Calculate the relative frequencies and percentages for all categories.
c. What percentage of these students are in the School of Engineering or in the School of Health and Applied
Sciences?
d. Draw a bar graph for the frequency distribution.

3. Thirty adults were asked which of the following conveniences they would find most difficult to do without: television (T),
refrigerator (R), air conditioner (A), public transport (P), or microwave (M). Their responses are listed below.
R A R A A T R M P A
A R R T P P T R A A
R A A T M P R A P R

a. Prepare a frequency distribution table.

b. Calculate the relative frequencies and percentages for all categories.
c. What percentage of these adults named refrigerator or air conditioner as the convenience that they would find
most difficult to do without?
d. Draw a bar graph for the relative frequency distribution.

4. The following data gives the number of absent students per lecture in the past 24 lectures for Basic Business Statistics.

3 1 0 2 0 2
0 3 4 3 4 0
1 4 4 3 3 3
2 1 1 2 0 2

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 a. Prepare a frequency distribution for the data.
b. Calculate the relative frequencies and percentages for all classes.
c. Construct a histogram for the frequency distribution.
5. The following table gives the frequency distribution for the number of parking tickets received on campus of a university
during the past month by 200 students.

Number of tickets Number of students

0 59
1 44
2 37
3 32
4 28

a. Prepare a cumulative frequency distribution.

b. Calculate the cumulative relative frequencies and cumulative percentages for all classes.
c. Draw an ogive for the cumulative percentage distribution.

6. The following table summarizes the number of days taken by 100 customers to pay what they owe to a certain company.

36 35 19 44 35 36 24 20 27 24
15 24 42 26 31 26 17 30 17 28
33 37 28 34 45 30 35 25 45 30
20 31 30 36 39 31 36 34 37 33
34 27 22 31 23 13 43 18 42 18
38 19 40 25 29 45 31 29 32 23
28 32 28 32 30 31 29 28 29 41
30 41 32 29 33 46 44 28 21 22
52 42 14 29 23 37 38 21 37 33
32 29 35 35 24 26 35 33 60 45

a. Construct the frequency distribution for the dataset.

b. Construct the relative frequency distribution for the dataset.
c. Construct the cumulative frequency distribution for the dataset.

7. A property developer analyzed the amount of office space available in 40 offi ce blocks in the CBD of Gobabis. The
following floor areas were recorded.

175 150 178 144 182 172 126 143

146 116 182 140 162 155 176 140
165 165 142 165 168 120 160 155
170 162 177 164 158 118 135 162
195 124 135 150 178 190 160 185

a. Determine the range of the data.

b. Use Sturges Rule to determine k, the number of classes, also determine the class width and the appropriate
class limits.
c. Construct a frequency distribution for the data.
d. Construct a histogram for the data. Interpret your histogram.
e. Construct a frequency polygon and interpret it.
f. Construct a less than ogive for the data.
g. Construct a more than ogive for the data. From your graph what percentage of office blocks has available office
space in excess of 175square metres?
h. Plot the less than and more than ogives on the same axis and determine the median.
What percentage of office blocks has less than 145 square metres floor space?
i. What office space area is provided by the lower 70% of office blocks?

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8. The following data are marks of students in an examination.
24 61 36 81 45 37 78 65 60 39
47 51 35 82 63 60 58 37 52 24
90 87 18 8 29 46 35 64 27 50

a. Construct a frequency distribution for the data.

b. Compile the cumulative frequency table and draw the cumulative frequency curve.
c. If the minimum for grade A was fixed at 74, estimate from your curve the percentage of candidates obtaining
grade A.

9. The following data represent the costs of a sample of 30 postal mailings (in N$) by a company.
3.67 2.75 5.47 4.65 3.32 2.09
1.83 10.94 1.93 3.89 7.2 2.78
3.34 7.8 3.2 3.21 3.55 3.53
3.64 4.95 5.42 8.64 4.84 4.10
9.15 3.45 5.11 1.97 2.84 4.15

a. Construct a stem and leaf plot of the data.

b. What does the stem and leaf tell you about the costs?

10. A company deployed 50 salespersons in a marketing zone. The following table summarizes the number of hours each
salesperson used over a period of one month.
128 203 40 149 84 164 187 124 144 130
62 93 128 87 155 94 157 195 110 133
141 104 69 121 113 79 162 149 204 103
143 30 42 164 71 105 151 161 165 175
148 114 116 122 146 197 167 184 156 140

a. Construct a frequency distribution for the data .

b. Calculate the relative frequencies and percentages for all classes.
c. Construct a less than and more than ogive on the same graph. Estimate the middle quartile.
d. From the grouped data, calculate the mean, variance and standard deviation.
e. Calculate the co-efficient of variation and interpret the results.

11. Refer to the data in Question 2

a. Construct a frequency distribution for the data.
b. Calculate the relative frequencies and percentages for all classes.
c. Construct a less than ogive on the same graph.
d. From the grouped data, calculate the mean, variance and standard deviation.

SECTION 4: DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS

1. Refer to the data below.

62 93 128 87 155 94 153 195 110 133
a. Calculate the mean, median and mode for the data.
b. Find the range, variance and standard deviation.
c. Compute the values of the three quartiles and the interquartile range.

2. The following data gives the time (in min) that each of 20 students selected from a university waited in line at the
cashier to pay their registration fees at the beginning of the first semester.
15 8 23 21 5 17 31 22 34 6
5 10 14 17 16 25 30 3 31 19
a. Calculate the mean, median and mode for the data.
b. Find the range, variance and standard deviation.
c. Compute the values of the three quartiles and the interquartile range.

3. Refer to Section 2, Questions 4 and 5

a. Calculate the mean, variance and standard deviation

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3. The ratio of actual costs to estimated costs for 49 new product developments in a pharmaceutical firm are given in the
following distribution:
Cost ratio Number of products
0.00-0.50 1
0.50-1.00 5
1.00-1.50 18
1.50-2.00 6
2.00-2.50 6
2.50-3.00 10
3.00-3.50 3
a. Calculate the mean, median and modal cost ratio for this distribution.
b. Calculate the variance and standard deviation for this distribution.
c. Calculate the co-efficient of variation and interpret the results.

4. The human resource department of a company analyzed the level of absenteeism of 86 employees who reported ill over
the past year.

Days absent Number of employees

3-<7 14
7 - < 11 22
11 - < 15 11
15 - < 19 6
19 - < 23 33
a. Find the mean median and modal level of absenteeism.
b. Is the distribution of days absent symmetrical?
c. Calculate the variance and standard deviation for this distribution.
d. Interpret the standard deviation.
e. Calculate the co-efficient of variation and interpret the results.

5. The following data represents the percentages of family income allocated to groceries for a sample of 50 shoppers
% of family income No of shoppers
10 -  20 6
20 -  30 14
30 -  40 16
40 -  50 11
50 -  60 3

a. Calculate the mean mode and median for the distribution.

b. Which of the three measures of central location values would you publish in a consumer magazine as being
representative of the actual percentage of family income spend on groceries? Explain.
c. Calculate the variance & standard deviation for this distribution.

SECTION 5: PROBABILITY THEORY

1. Specify a sample space S for each of the following random experiments.

a. The results of 3 flips of a coin are observed.
b. The marital status of a loan applicant is solicited.
c. Two six-sided dice are tossed and the sum of the spots turning up is noted.
d. The number of customers served by a restaurant on a particular day recorded.
e. After 20 shoppers are asked if they are satisfied with parking accessibility, the number of positive responses is
noted.

2. Two students are randomly selected from a statistics class, and it is observed whether or not they suffer from maths
anxiety.
2.1. How many total outcomes are possible? Draw a tree diagram as part of your solution.
2.2. Write down the sample space.
2.3. Calculate the following probabilities.
a. Both students suffer from maths anxiety.

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 b. Exactly one student suffers from maths anxiety.
c. The first student does not suffer and the second suffers from maths anxiety.
d. None of the students suffers from maths anxiety.

3. A test contains two multiple choice questions, each question having four possible answers. If a student makes a
random guess to answer each question:
3.1. How many total outcomes are possible?
3.2. Draw a tree diagram for this experiment and write down the sample space.
3.3. Calculate the following probabilities.
a. Both answers are correct.
b. At most one answer is wrong.
c. The first answer is correct and the second is wrong.
d. Exactly one is wrong.

4. An aerospace company has submitted bids on two separate government contracts A and B. The company feels that
it has 50% chance of winning contract A and 40% chance of winning contract B. Furthermore it believes that winning
contract A is independent of winning contract B.
a. What is the probability that the company will win both contracts?
b. What is the probability that the company will win at least 1 of the contracts?

5. A certain city has one morning news paper and one evening newspaper. It is estimated that 20% of the city’s
households subscribe to the morning newspaper and 60% subscribe to the evening newspaper. Of those who
subscribe to the morning newspaper, 80% also subscribe to the evening paper. What proportion of the households
a. Subscribes to both papers.
b. Subscribes to at most one of the papers.
c. Subscribes to neither paper.

6. A union’s executive conducted a survey of its members to determine what the members felt were the important
issues to be discussed during the upcoming negotiations with management. 74% felt job security was an important
issue while 65% felt pension benefits were an important issue. Of those who felt pension benefits were an
important issue, 60% also felt job security was important.
a. What % of the members felt that both issues were important?
b. What % felt at least one of the issues was important?

7. Suppose a randomly selected passenger is about to through the metal detector at Hosea Kutako Airport. Consider
the following two outcomes: “the passenger sets off the metal detector’’ and “the passenger does not set off the
metal detector’’.
a. Are these two outcomes equally likely? Explain.
b. If you are to find the probability of these outcomes, would you use the classical approach or the empirical
approach?

8. Thirty five persons have applied for a security guard position with a company. Of them, 9 have previous experience
in this area and 26 do not. Suppose one applicant is selected at random. Consider the following events: “this
applicant has previous experience’’ and “this applicant does not have previous experience’’

a. Are these two outcomes equally likely? Explain.

b. If you are to find the probability of these outcomes, would you use the classical approach or the empirical
approach?

9. A statistical experiment has 8 equally likely outcomes that are denoted by 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8. Let event A={2, 5,
7} and event B={1, 5, 8}

a. Are events A and B mutually exclusive?

b. Are events A and B independent?
c. What are the complements of A and B, respectively, and their probabilities?

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 10. A statistical experiment has 10 equally likely outcomes that are denoted by 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10. Let event
A={3, 4, 6, 9} and event B={1, 2, 5}

a. Are events A and B mutually exclusive?

b. Are events A and B independent?
c. What are the complements of A and B, res pectively, and their probabilities?

SECTION 6: JOINT AND CONDITIONAL PROBABILITY

1. Two thousand randomly selected adults were asked whether or not they have ever shopped on the internet. The
following table gives a two way classification of the responses
Have Shopped Have never Shopped
Male 400 800
Female 350 450

If one adult is selected at random from these 2000 adults, find the probability that this adult
a. Has never shopped on the Internet
b. Is a male
c. Has shopped on the Internet given that this adult is a female
d. Is a male given that this adult has never shopped on the Internet
e. Are the events “male” and “female” mutually exclusive?
f. Are the events “have shopped” and “male” mutually exclusive? Why or why not?
g. Are the events “female” and “have shopped” independent? Why or why not?

2. The trustees of a company’s pension plan have solicited the employees’ feelings towards a proposed revision in the
plan. A breakdown of the responses is shown in the table below.
Decision Blue collar workers White collar workers Managers
For 67 32 11
Against 63 18 9

Suppose that an employee is selected at random, find the probability that the employee selected is:
a. A blue collar worker.
b. Against the proposed revision.
c. Not a manager.

3. The following table shows the 300 employees of a small manufacturing company cross-classified on the basis of age
and work category.
Work category
Age Group Production Sales Office Total
<25 50 2 50 102
25-40 70 24 50 144
>40 40 4 10 54
Total 160 30 110 300

An employee is selected at random from this population. Calculate the probability that the employee is:
a. Under 40 years of age.
b. A production worker.
c. A sales person and between 25 and 40 years of age.
d. Over 40 given that he/she is an office worker.
e. A production worker or under 25 or both.

4. A wine dealer has classified the last 200 customers according to the criteria given in the following table:
Type of wine Age of customer
bought Under 30 30-50 50 and above Total

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 South African 100 30 20 150
French 2 2 16 20
German 2 16 2 20
Other 4 6 0 10
Total 108 54 38 200
Find the following probabilities.
a. P(age <30).
b. P(South African).
c. P(South African or French).
d. P(age <30 and South African).
e. P(age <30 or South African).

5. Given the following probabilities about 2 events E1 and E2 :

 P(E2 /E1 )=0.30.
 P(E1 )=0.60.
 P(E2 )=0.40.
Find P(E1 and E2).

6. A company has 1000 credit customers. They are classified according to the size of their balances and the timeliness
of their payments.
Balance
Last payment <100 100-500 >500 Total
On time 0.45 0.85
Late 0.03
Total 0.20 0.30

a. Copy the table and fill in the missing probabilities.

b. If a customer is selected at random, what is the probability that his last payment was late?
c. If a customer is selected at random, what is the probability that the balance is less than 100?
d. If the balance is less than 100, what is the probability that the last payment was late?

7. A candidate writes two examinations A and B. His chance of passing examination A is 0.3 and that of passing
examination B is 0.4 and that of passing both is 0.1. What is the probability that the candidate passes examination A
or B.

8. Sixty percent of the population of a town read magazine A or magazine B and 10% read both. If 50% read magazine
A what is the probability that a person selected at random reads magazine B?

9. Of a company’s employees, 30% are women and 6% are married women. Suppose an employee is selected at
random. If the employee selected is a woman, find the probability that she is married.

SECTION 7: TOTAL PROBABILITY AND BAYES THEOREM.

1. An electronics plant, it is known from past experience that the probability is 0.84 that a new worker who attended
the company’s training programme will meet the production quota, and that the corresponding probability is 0.49
for a new worker who has not attended the company’s training programme. If 70% of all new workers attend the
training programme, what is the probability that a new worker will meet the production quota?

2. In a certain community, 8 percent of all adults over 50 have diabetes. If a health service in this community correctly
diagnoses 95 percent of all persons with diabetes as having the disease and incorrectly diagnoses 2 percent of all
persons without diabetes as having the disease, find the probabilities that
a. The community health service will diagnose an adult over 50 as having diabetes.
b. A person over 50 diagnosed by the health service as having diabetes actually has the disease.

3. Because a new medical procedure has been shown to be effective in the early detection of an illness, a medical
screening of the population has been proposed. The probability that the test correctly identifies someone with the
illness as positive is 0.99, and the probability that the test correctly identifies someone without the illness as
negative is 0.95. The incidence of the illness in the general population is 0.0001.

a. What is the probability that the test will diagnose a person as having the illness?
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 b. You take the test, and the result is positive. What is the probability that you have the illness?

4. In a manufacturing company, a batch of 50 units was manufactured by three production sections in the following
compositions:- 18 units were manufactured in the first production, 20 in the second and 12 in the third. The
probability that a unit from section one or two meets the requirements is 0.9 while that for a unit from section 3 is
0.6. Determine the probability that a unit picked for inspection meets acceptable quality requirements.

5 In a manufacturing plant, machine A produces 10% of a certain product and machin e B produces 90% of this
product. Of the production by machine A, 10% are defective; for machine B the defective rate is 5%.
a. If a product is selected at random from one of the machines, what is the probability that it is defective?
b. If a company inspector, sampling production at random, discovers a defective product, what is the chance that
it came from Machine B?

6. Three clerks in a bank branch attended a group of customers. The first clerk attended 25% of the customers, the
second 35% and the third 40%. Of the customers attended by the first clerk, 5% were not satisfied and of those
attended by the second clerk, 4% were dissatisfied while for the third clerk 3% were dissatisfied. The branch
manager randomly picked one customer who was dissatisfied. What is the probability that he was served by the
third clerk?

7. A company manufactures a total of 8000 motorcycles a month in three plants A, B and C. Of the 8000 motorcycles,
plant A manufactures 4000, and plant B manufactures 3000. At plant A, 85 out of 10 0 motorcycles are of standard
quality or better. At plant B, 65 out of 100 motorcycles are of standard quality or better and at plant C, 60 out of
100 motorcycles are of standard quality or better. The quality controller randomly selects a motorcycle and f inds it
to be of sub-standard quality. Calculate the probability that it has come from plant B.

SECTION 8: RANDOM VARIABLES AND EXPECTATION

1. The number of accidents that occur annually on a busy stretch of highway is a random variable.
a. What are the possible values of the random variable?
b. Are the values countable? Explain.
c. Is there a finite number of values?
d. Is the random variable discrete or continuous?

2. The distance a car travels on a tank of gasoline is a random variable.

a. What are the possible values of this random variable?
b. Are the values countable?
c. Is there a finite number of values.
d. Is the variable discrete or continuous?

3. Consider a random variable with the following distribution.

x -4 0 1 2
P(x) 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.1

Find the following probabilities.

a). P(X>0) b). P(X  0) c).P(0≤X≤1) d). P(X=-4) e). P(X=-2).
Find  and σ for the random variable. Find also E(X2 ) and also E(3X2 +2)

4. A shopping mall estimates the probability distribution of the number of stores a mall customers actually enter when
visiting the mall, as shown in the table.

Number of stores entered, X 0 1 2 3 4 5 6

Probability, P(X) 0.05 0.19 0.22 0.28 0.12 0.09 0.06

Use the probability distribution provided to find :

a. The mean
b. The standard deviation of the number of stores entered.

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 5. Vusi Mhlangu is the top salesman for his company. Records indicate that he makes a sale on 20% of his sales calls. If
he calls on three potential clients, create a probability distribution for the random variable X representing sales
deals closed.
What is the probability that he makes:
a. exactly 3 sales?
b. less than 2 sales?
c. at most 2 sales?

6. Consider the random variable with the following probability distribution.

P(X)=0.1X where X=1,2,3,4.

Express the probability distribution in tabular form and use it to find the following probabilities.

a). P(X1) b). P(X>1). c). P(2≤X≤3) d). P(X=4) e). P(X=3.5)
Find the mean and the variance of the random variable X.

7. Let X be the number of dots that turn up when a six sided die is tossed.
a. Express the probability distribution of X in tabular form.

8. Let X be the number of heads obtained when a fair coin is flipped three times. Express the probability distribution of
X in tabular form.

9. Let X be the random variable with the following probability distribution.

x 5 10 15 20 25
P(x) 0.05 0.3 0.25 0.25 0.15
a. Find the mean and standard deviation of X.
b. Find the mean and standard deviation of 2X.
c. Find the expected value and variance of Y=4X-3.

10. You are planning a journey to Mars. You are told that the mean daytime temperature at that time of the year is –10
degrees Celsius. With a standard deviation of 3 degrees Celsius. You are only familiar with the Fahrenheit scale. The
relationship between the two scales is represented by the formula .
5
F  ( )C  32 Find the mean and standard deviation of daytime Fahrenheit scale temperatures.
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11. Suppose you and a friend have contributed equally to a portfolio of $10 000 invested in a risky venture. The income
X that will be earned on this portfolio over the next year has the following probability distribution.

X $500 $100 $2000

P(X) 0.5 0.3 0.2

a). Determine the expected value and variance of the income earned on this portfolio.
b). Determine the expected value and variance of your share (one half) of the income.

SECTION 9: DISCRETE PROBABILITY DISTRIBUTIONS

1. Solve the following problems by using the Binomial formula.

a. If n = 4 and p = 0.10, find P(X=3).
b. If n = 7 and p = 0.80, find P(X=4).
c. If n = 10 and p = 0.60, find P(X3).
d. If n = 12 and p = 0.45, find P(3≤X≤5).

2. Find the mean and standard deviation of the following Binomial distributions.
a. n = 20 and p = 0.70
b. n = 70 and p = 0.35
c. n = 100 and p = 0.50

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3. Find the following values by using the Poisson formula
a. P(X = 5| = 2.3)
b. P(X = 2| = 3.9)
c. P(X ≤ 3| = 4.1)
d. P(X = 0| = 2.7)
e. P(X = 1| = 5.4)
f. P(4  X  8| = 4.4)

4. A shoe store’s records show that 30% of the customers purchase by credit card. This morning 20 customers
purchased shoes from the store.
a. Find the probability that at least 12 of the customers used a credit card.
b. What is the probability that at least 3 customers but not more than 6 used a credit card?
c. What is the expected number of customers using a credit card?

5. a. A discrete random variable can be described by the Binomial distribution if it satisfies four conditions. Briefly
discuss each of these conditions.
b. According to an article in the February 1991 issue of Reader’s Digest, patients face a 1 in 20 chance of acquiring
an infection while hospitalized. If the records of eight randomly selected hospitalized patients are examined,
find the probability that none of the eight have acquired an infection whilst hospitalized.

6. An important part of the customer service responsibilities of a telephone company relates to the speed with which
faults in residential service can be repaired. Suppose past data indicate that the likelihood is 0.70 that faults in
residential service can be repaired on the same day. For the first five faults reported on a given day, what is the
probability that:

a. At least three will be repaired on the same day

b. Exactly three will repaired on the same day
c. Fewer than two will be repaired on the same day

7. A sign on the gas pumps of a certain chain of gasoline stations encourages customers to have their oil checked
claiming that one out of every four cars should have its oil topped up.
a. What is the probability that exactly 3 of the next ten cars entering the s tation need an oil top-up.
b. What is the probability that at least half of the ten cars need a top-up?

8. The number of accidents that occur on an assembly line have a Poisson distribution with an average of three
accidents per week.
a. Find the probability that a particular week will be accident free.
b. Find the probability that at least three accidents will occur in a week.
c. Find the probability that exactly five accidents will occur in a week.
d. If the accidents in different weeks are independent of each other, find the expected number of accidents to
occur in a year.

9. Customers are known to arrive at an exclusive boutique randomly, with an average of two customers arriving per
hour.
a. What is the probability that more than 3 customers will require service during a particular hour?
b. What is the probability that fewer than 4 customers will require service during a 4 hour period in the morning
on a particular day?

10. During the summer months (June to August, inclusive) an average 5 marriages per month take place in a small city.
Assuming marriages occur randomly and independently, find the probability of the following
a. Fewer than 4 marriages take place in a given summer month.
b. At least 14 but not more than 18 marriages will take place in the whole summer period.
c. Exactly 10 marriages will take place in the two months of July and August.

11. The number of bank robberies that occur in a large metropolitan city is described by a mean of 1.8 per day. Find the
probabilities of the following events.
a. Three or more bank robberies in a day.
b. Between 10 and 12 (both inclusive) robberies during a 5 day period.

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SECTION 10: CONTINUOUS PROBABILITY DISTRIBUTIONS (NORMAL DISTRIBUTION)

1. Use the normal tables to find the following probabilities.

a).P(Z³1.7) b). P(Z³-095) c). P(Z≤-1.96) d). P(Z³-1.96) e).P(Z≤2.43) f). P(-2.97≤Z≤1.38) g.) P(-1.14≤Z≤1.55)

2. Let X be a random variable with mean 50 and standard deviation 8. Find the following probabilities.
a). P(X³52) b). P(X<40) c). P(X>40). d). P(35≤X≤64)

3. State three properties of the normal distribution function.

4. Pulse rates of adult men are approximately normally distributed with a mean of 70 and standard deviation of 8.
What proportion of men have a pulse rate that is:
a. Greater than 76?
b. Between 64 and 76?

5. Electronic books (e-books) are becoming a reality thanks to the computer age. However, e-books are not cheap as
the average price in 2009 was N$400 per book. Suppose the price of e-books is normally distributed with a standard
deviation of N$150
What is the percentage of e-books being sold in 2009 were priced:
a. Between N$300 and N$600?
b. Less than N$250?

6. The time required to assemble an electronic component is normally distributed with mean 12 minutes and variance
2.25 minutes. Find the probability that a particular assembly takes the foll owing length of time.
a. More than 14 minutes.
b. Less than 8 minutes
c. Between 10 and 15 minutes.

7. Weekly purchases of petrol at a garage are normally distributed with a mean of 5000 litres and a standard deviation
of 2000 litres. What is the probability that in a given week, the purchases will be:
a. Between 2500 and 5000 litres
b. More than 3760 litres.

8. The lifetime of a certain brand of tyres is normally distributed with a mean of 45000km and a standard deviation of
2500km. The tyres carry a warranty of 40000km.
a. What proportion will fail before the warranty expires?
b. What proportion will fail after the warranty expires but before reaching 41000 km?

9. In an intelligence test administered to 1000 children, the average score was 42 and the standard deviation 24.
Assuming normal distribution, find:
a. The number of children with scores between 30 and 60

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